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8/6/14

MCMLXXIV

24.4.07

I was born in 1974, the same year as People magazine; the same year as Patty Hearst's abduction and Nixon's impeachment, the Bathurst Gaol Riot, TWA flight 841, The Rumble in the Jungle, and the discovery of Lucy, A skeleton from the hominid species Australopithecus afarensis.

I wrote songs even as a child. I used to sit on the swingset in the back yard on Edgelawn with my dog Charlie and make 'em up as I went along. We had stairs that went down to our finished basement alongside the back of the house. I sat on the cement at the top and sang about the same things I do now-mostly loneliness and how hard people are to hold on to.

Popular songs included "I Haven't Got Time For The Pain", "(You're) Having My Baby, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (the Stones version), and "Smokin' In The Boys Room".

Jack Benny Died. Penelope Cruz was born.

Throughout school I felt incredibly isolated. Parties depressed me in high school. I went home more alone than I had been while getting ready. I never knew what to wear or how to talk to the girls. I never knew what to say. I couldn't fight. I got my ass kicked a lot in grade school, both at school and at home. I'm pretty good at taking a beating, however, though I've always been a little afraid to hit in the face.

Young Frankenstein, The Towering Inferno and Herbie Rides Again came out. The Goddfather II won best picture.

The year began on a Tuesday, I was born on a Friday night. June 14; Gemini; year of the Tiger. I share a birthday with Che Guevara, Boy George, Yasmine Bleeth, Marla Gibbs and Jerzy Kosinski. That sums me up pretty well.

My earliest memory is of being in a shoe store and being small, staring at belt buckles and hugging the salesman's leg for wearing the same pants as my daddy. They were blue. I looked up and was scared.

My Father was 36 for most of the year and my mother was 26 for half of it. She turned 27 the Wednesday before I was born.

My sister turned 3 a month or so before I was born. she wanted to return me initially, but decided to keep me, after all.

My best friend growing up was Pat Stammer. He didn't like me, but there wasn't many kids on Edgelawn. I pronounced "Edgelawn" Edge-a-lawn until very recently.

Happy Days premiered and The Brady Bunch was cancelled. Little House on the Prairie started a nine year run.

Rikki Feltes changed my life in 5th grade. I think he was the first person who seemed to like me. Maybe it was Phil Kramer. The first girl I "went out" with was Maureen Conlon. She broke it off behind the bushes, but said we could keep it going if I didn't tell any one. My first kiss was Kathy Lies in the parking lot at Freeman School. There was some wonderful petting and awkward female relations that ultimately led to a rather disappointing loss of virginity at 18. It wasn't the girl, she was wonderful in many twists of the term, but the build up killed it.

12 days after I was born The first use of a UPC code was implemented for a pack of Wrigley's Gum in Troy, Ohio. 4 days after that Rev. Martin Luther King's mother was killed during a church service in Atlanta, Georgia. 15 days after that Christine Chubbock shot and killed herself (eventually) during a Live TV broadcast in Florida.

I've been to Florida twice, both times to Disney World. Once as a child and then again as an adult with a girl I worked with and her children. Epcot Center was my favorite, as a kid I got a stuffed "Figment", as an adult I got a Virgin Mega Store T-Shirt for free from the resort.